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Baseball bat attacks linked, police confirm

Two baseball bat attacks Saturday, one in a University of Georgia parking lot and an earlier one a few blocks away, are related, Athens-Clarke police said Monday.

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The first attack happened at about 2:15 a.m., when a UGA student and a friend were walking near the intersection of Spring and Fulton streets near downtown Athens and came upon a trio of Hispanic men, police said.

The victim told police that he said, "El Hotel" to the men, and one of them jumped on him, but Athens-Clarke police Lt. Clarence Holeman said he suspects more was said to provoke such a violent attack.

"I tend to think something else was said," Holeman said.

According to the victim, all three men punched and stomped him, and one of them hit him in the head with an aluminum baseball bat before the men drove away in a white sport utility vehicle on Fulton Street toward South Jackson Street, police said.

The victim's friend was not attacked, according to police.

The victim was taken to Athens Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and released, police said.

The second attack came less than 30 minutes later, at about 2:45 a.m., in a UGA parking lot off East Campus Road near Baldwin Street, police said.

This time, a male UGA student and a visiting female friend were approached by two men, according to police, who said the men assaulted the student with a baseball bat without any apparent provocation, and one of the men touched the young woman "in her private parts" before they left in the same white SUV, UGA police Capt. Lisa Boone said.

The student refused treatment for a cut to his head and a bruised shoulder, she said.

The police departments are working together on the cases, said Boone, who said the man who molested the young woman will face a sexual battery charge if he's caught.

One of the men in the second attack wore a white or light-colored shirt with stripes on it and blue jeans, police said, and witnesses said both men have a small build.

Investigators with the UGA Police Department are asking anyone who has any information about the on-campus attack to call (706) 542-2200.